News by the Mail.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 6048, 13 September 1894, Page 3

News by the Mail.

(by TELEGRAPH FROM AUCKLAND.) THE KATE MARSDEN CASE. Pastor Francis of the British-American Church at St. Petersburg, has written to the London Times (according to a despatch dated August 15th) that the committee of Kate Marsdens friends formed in St. Petersburg in December last to inquire into the serious charges against her in England, America, and New Zealand have continued their labors, and the result has been communicated to Miss Marsden's London committee, who will recognise that Miss Marsden's inquiry must be° closed and the committee must immediately dissolve. When the committee was formed Miss Marsden agreed that if the decision should be adverse she would surrender all the decorations bestowed upon her by Imperialand Royal wellwishers. "It is now my painful duty, adds Pastor Francis, " to call upon her to fulfil her Dromise. Written acknowledgment of the gravest charges has been made by Bliss Marsden. You will thus know that no possible injustice will be doneher. M. Poledonestaff, Procurator of the Holy Synod, has undertaken to forward to Siberia any f undsnow in thp hands of the London committee for the relief of lepers." Per contra, Miss Kate Marsden, of the Red Cross Society, does not propose to remain passive under these charges. She has decided to prosecute Father Francis.

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL. Lord Randolph Churchill, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Salisbury s Cabinet, accompanied by Lady Churchill, who was Miss Jerome, daughter of Leonard Jerome, an eminent sporting man, of New York, arrived in San Francisco on August 14 on their way round the world for the benefit of Lord Randolph s health. Yarious rumors have been set afloat as to the cause of his Lordship's ill-health, and he has been made the yictim of morphine, opium, cocaine, find intoxicants of all kinds. That be is a sipk man is not apparent from outward indications. The travellers will spend a few days in San Francisco and then go by steamer to Victoria, whence they will sail for Japan for a long stay abroad.

THE RAILWAY STRIKE. George M. Pullman, the multi-million-aire, who was directly responsible for the recent great railway tie up on the Southern and Western railroads of the United States, now proposes to evict all late strikers from his model town iiear Chicago, giving for a reason that he must make "home room for the new employees. It is a desperate outlook for the unfortunates. As one poor woman exclaimed, " Surely, they will not put us out. Where would we go ? We have no money to buy a bushel of coal. We have no clothes, end the American public would not stand by and see a thousand families homeless while Pullman is riding thus roughshod over former employees." The AttorneyGeneral of Illinois filed a petition on August 11th that the Pullman Palace Car Company's charter be declared void, and for cause sets forth that the Company has usurped the exercises privileges, and powers not warranted under the law charter, and with a persistent disregard for the law of the State of Illinois.

THE STRIKE INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. The Strike Commission appointed by President Cleveland commeticed on the loth August. So far as it has been developed the strike of the railway operatives was caused by the statement of the general managers that they would back Pullman during its continuance. According to one witness the strike was not merely for the protection of the Pullman employees, but as the general managers had organised against the American Railway Union, members had to protect themselves. Mary A. Wood, a woman striker, testified that the wages paid by the Pullman Company were insufficient for the bare necessities of life. She received Idol per day and paid 17dol 10c per month rent for one of the company's houses. to the same effect was given by other witnesses. About 4000 men struck at Pullman, and each paid a dollar to the A.R. Union. ENGLAND'S DUAL POSITION. The Hew York Times' London correspondent, on August 12, after speaking of the scarcity of war news from Corea, proceeds:—"ln the absence of any knowledge of what the Mongolian combatants are doing, attention is more and more drawn to the increasing prospect that there may be soon Caucasian combatants as well. This seems to be the case among the foreign population in treaty ports. Business firms in London that are getting despatches from Shanghai, Tien-Tsin, and other trading ports report that they are alive with all sorts of rumors of Russian preparation and Russian forward movements. Meanwhile it has become fairly clear that Russia and France are on I Japan's side, and they assume that England is backing China. The danger of serious trouble lies in the inability or indisposition cf Franco-Russian statesmen to distinguish between what official England says and what unofficial irresponsible England, represented in the trade of 20 treaty ports, is doing. The former is sincere, even strenuous, in its J desire not to be embroiled in this row, and is honestly striving to preserve the most correct neutrality. The latter is, on the other hand, up to its eyes in practical Chinese partisanship—furnishing supplies, transporting troops, and locally financing the whole Chinese martial outfit. These people are free lances as long as it is plain sailing, but the moment they strike a snag they are British subjects and entitled to British protection. French and Russian papers decline to separate undoubted active support that commercial England is giving to the Chinese from the attitude of official England, and their editorial utterances, we may fairly take it, reflect the views of the Government at Paris and St. Petersburg. It is by a development of this position that trouble will come if it comes at all."

THE PACIFIC CABLE.

It appears from an official statement issued by the Dominion Government (as an Ottawa despatch of August Bth reads) that it had been decided to abandon Hawaii as a port for the landing of the Canadian and Australian Pacific cable. Tenders are invited for seren different plans. Plan I invites tenders for the construction of a cable to be the property of the Government, but to be guaranteed by the construction company. Plan 2 is for a cable to be run by a company undertaking the work under the basis of a subsidy, the tender to stipulate the amount of «nb«idy required and the

number of years for which it will be operated. The third plan calls for a tender for the construction and operation of a cable for a stipulated share of the earnings to be made by the companies tendering. Parties tendering are asked in each case to tender for seven different plans. Under the three plans mentioned the Government regulate the amount of tolls to be chaged by an Order-in-Council.